The Forum and the Tower

How Scholars and Politicians Have Imagined the World, from Plato to Eleanor Roosevelt

Mary Ann Glendon

Authored by one of America's leading legal scholars who recently served as US ambassador to the Vatican

Covers the relationship between intellectuals and politics from classical times to the present

Features examples that can inspire young scholars and politicians trying to bridge the gap between politics and the life of the mind

The Forum and the Tower

How Scholars and Politicians Have Imagined the World, from Plato to Eleanor Roosevelt

Mary Ann Glendon

Description

As Mary Ann Glendon writes in this fascinating new book, the relationship between politics and the academy has been fraught with tension and regret-and the occasional brilliant success-since Plato himself.

In The Forum and the Tower, Glendon examines thinkers who have collaborated with leaders, from ancient Syracuse to the modern White House, in a series of brisk portraits that explore the meeting of theory and reality. Glendon discusses a roster of great names, from Edmund Burke to Alexis de Tocqueville, Machiavelli to Rousseau, John Locke to Max Weber, down to Charles Malik, who helped Eleanor Roosevelt draft the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. With each, she explores the eternal questions they faced, including: Is politics such a dirty business that I shouldn't get involved? Will I betray my principles by pursuing public office? Can I make a difference, or will my efforts be wasted? Even the most politically successful intellectuals, she notes, did not all end happily. The brilliant Marcus Tullius Cicero, for example, reached the height of power in the late Roman Republic, then fell victim to intrigue, assassinated at Mark Antony's order. Yet others had a lasting impact. The legal scholar Tribonian helped Byzantine Emperor Justinian I craft the Corpus Juris Civilis, which became a bedrock of Western law. Portalis and Napoleon emulated them, creating the civil code that the French emperor regarded as his greatest legacy.

Formerly ambassador to the Vatican and an eminent legal scholar, Glendon knows these questions personally. Here she brings experience and expertise to bear in a timely, and timeless, study.

The Forum and the Tower

How Scholars and Politicians Have Imagined the World, from Plato to Eleanor Roosevelt

Mary Ann Glendon

Table of Contents

Preface Introduction

1. Plato in the Real City2. Marcus Tullius Cicero: Politics in a Dying Republic3. Justinian, Tribonian, and Irnerius: How Statesmen and Scholars Rescued Roman Law (Twice)4. Advising the Prince: The Enigma of Machiavelli 5. The Scholar vs. The Statesman: Thomas Hobbes and Sir Edward Coke 6. John Locke: The Don Heard Round the World 7. Rousseau: Political Philosophy without Politics8. Edmund Burke: Man on a Tightrope9. Tocqueville the Politician10. Max Weber: Scholarship and Politics in the Disenchanted World11. Oliver Wendell Holmes: The Tradition-Haunted Iconoclast12. The First Lady and the Philosopher: Eleanor Roosevelt, Charles Malik, and the Human Rights Project

The Forum and the Tower

How Scholars and Politicians Have Imagined the World, from Plato to Eleanor Roosevelt

Mary Ann Glendon

Author Information

Mary Ann Glendon is Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and is a former United States Ambassador to the Vatican. Her books include Rights Talk: The Impoverishment of Political Discourse, A Nation Under Lawyers, and A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Forum and the Tower

How Scholars and Politicians Have Imagined the World, from Plato to Eleanor Roosevelt

Mary Ann Glendon

Reviews and Awards

"This is a book enjoyable to read and easy to recommend."--The Thomist